MediaWiki talk:Sidebar

Sidebar "Create" messages

I changed the "Create (a new) Function" and "Create (a new) Object" to use messages from the WikiLambda extension, which can be conveniently translatable by everyone with a translatewiki account. This is relatively better than hard-coding them in a way that is completely untranslatable, or using local pages in the MediaWiki space, which would be translatable only by local administrators.

However, an even better way to address this would be to create new messages specifically for the sidebar. It would be better not only because some people may want a shorter message, but also because reusing messages from other places is generally not a good practice, as documented in mw:Help:System message#Avoid message re-use. Amir E. Aharoni (talk) 19:52, 8 January 2025 (UTC)

The message can be translated, and it being harder to translate certainly isn't a bigger priority than not using a message in the wrong spot. I'm fine with a page being created for translators to translate these messages, and would be happy to add them or create that page. Feeglgeef (talk) 19:55, 8 January 2025 (UTC)

Can you please revert the edit you just made? It's pretty clearly wheel warring. Feeglgeef (talk) 19:58, 8 January 2025 (UTC)

"Can be translated only by administrators" is not the same as "can be translated".

If you think that these messages are too long, new appropriately translatable messages can be added to the extension. Amir E. Aharoni (talk) 20:00, 8 January 2025 (UTC)

Or, we can create them locally and have them translated locally. Creating a message in Wikilambda is not appropriate for the Wikifunctions sidebar, as WikiLambda and Wikifunctions are not the same thing. Feeglgeef (talk) 20:02, 8 January 2025 (UTC)

If you find a way to create them locally and make them translatable locally by everyone, go for it. It is easy to do for templates, but I'm not sure that it's easy to do for the sidebar, which has a bunch of obscure features.

I might be wrong, but as far as I can tell, the WikiLambda extension is not likely to be used on other sites, so it's not a big deal to add site-specific messages to it. This is different from the Wikibase extension, for example, which was built from the start to be used not only on Wikidata, but on other sites, too.

For sidebar messages in Wikidata, Extension:Wikidata.org was made after everyone realized that it is a bad practice to use local hard-coded messages that only administrators can translate at best. Something like this can be done for Wikifunctions, too, if the developers are reluctant to add them to the WikiLambda extension. Amir E. Aharoni (talk) 20:08, 8 January 2025 (UTC)

I've done so at Wikifunctions:Local MediaWiki messages. Will rv your edit as I interpret this as your agreement. Feeglgeef (talk) 22:24, 8 January 2025 (UTC)

I have no idea how to use that thing that you made, and I'm pretty sure that it won't work.

Please don't revert it again until proper consensus. You are the only one who is bothered by the text of the English message. Amir E. Aharoni (talk) 22:30, 8 January 2025 (UTC)

Buddy you are the one who does not have proper consensus. You just came and decided that it would be your way smfh. Feeglgeef (talk) 22:31, 8 January 2025 (UTC)

As I already said in the Telegram channel (on the 31st of December) when you asked about it, the proper way to do it is to add the messages to either the WikimediaMessages repository or the WikiLambda one. - Nikki (talk) 14:00, 9 January 2025 (UTC)

Like Wikifunctions:Local_MediaWiki_messages/es Feeglgeef (talk) 22:35, 8 January 2025 (UTC)

Where do I even begin.

Your solution does not work. When the user interface language is French, for example, it displays "[[:Translations:Wikifunctions:Local MediaWiki messages/3/fr]]" instead of the actual text. As I had already said, such a thing is not expected to work with the sidebar. You are breaking the site for everyone now.

There is no consensus in general to what you're doing. There was a consensus on Telegram to add a "Create function" link to the sidebar. You didn't like that it's too long, but no one else thought that it's important. Nevertheless, you kept insisting on changing it: first in a way that isn't conveniently translatable, and then in a way that breaks the sidebar completely.

Stop doing it.

Also, and I don't believe that I even have to bring this up, don't ever use the f-word again in any form on any Wikimedia discussion space. What may be OK in a chat group with your close friends is not OK here—this is incivility, which is explicitly forbidden by the Universal Code of Conduct.

I am now going to try to do the responsible thing and to revert the sidebar to the version before my first change. When I added the "Create Function" link initially, I was trying to do something that other people seemed to want, and probably still want, but evidently, it caused more mess than benefit.

Other administrators and developers who know how to solve it well are welcome to do it. Amir E. Aharoni (talk) 02:21, 9 January 2025 (UTC)

1. I didn't use the f word?
2. You don't have consensus for your version. Consensus is not exclusively required when you dislike it
3. it worked on my machine? Maybe your computer is just broken.

Feeglgeef (talk) 02:43, 9 January 2025 (UTC)

Because of this exchange, I took the emergency measure to protect to admins only this page. I will report this to the admins' noticeboard, so that community might take a decision about how to edit and unprotect the page. --Sannita (WMF) (talk) 14:26, 9 January 2025 (UTC)